Artists Of The First World War: Volume 1

The idea of researching some of the lesser-known artists of the First World War came to me recently, when I saw a painting by Guy Lipscombe on the Facebook page of Sergio Sbalchiero, a historian from Italy. I could not stop thinking about that painting - “The Arrival of the First Guns on the Carso Front, Italy 1916” – and decided to find out more.The Italian Front in WW1 is often overlooked in favour of the Western Front. With Sergio’s help, I found quite a few artists and writers people who had also served on the Italian Front during WW1, among them E.M. Shepard, illustrator of the “Winnie the Pooh” stories, Freya Stark, the writer and the writer/historian G.M. Trevelyan.Freya Stark trained as a VAD and served with G. M. Trevelyan's British Red Cross ambulance unit, based at the Villa Trento near Udine in north east Italy. Bad eyesight meant that G.M. Trevelyan was unsuitable for military service. So I decided to do something to commemorate Guy’s work and the work of other, lesser-known artists of the First World War – and her we are. I hope you enjoy it! Note: Black and white illustrations and photos throughout